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Nancy Wagner, the viceâ€"president of the Organizaton for Qualâ€" ity Education. said that Waterloo Region‘s school boards‘ numbers on the provinceâ€"wide Grade 3 testing don‘t add up *"Some data wasn‘t given out," she said. "There were students with no data. They were so bad (on the test) they couldn‘t rank them." Wagner said at some schools as many as 30 per cent of the Grade 3 students tested were exempted from the test of reading writing and arithmetic administered to Ontario students last April. The boards‘ recently released schoolâ€"byâ€"school results failed to highlight high rates of exemption, she said. "They (school board officials) can‘t say we did really well, at or near the provincial average, without telling us that a lot of kids couldn‘t even take the test," she said. "Or that a lot of kids had to take it under special circumstances." In addition to the students who didn‘t rank, Wagner said that 30 per cent of children received special accommodation duning the test. This meant that they received special attention while taking the test. Some of the special attention they received included double the time to write the test, oral testing for children who couldn‘t read the test, and cases where the test was written for children who could neither read not write "I think that‘s way too high as a parent," said Wagner. "If they want people like me to have Futh in what they tell us, then they‘ve got to give us all the information." Patricta Brannigan, the superintendent of program services for the Waterloo District Catholic school board, said that there are a number of the students receiving accommodation in the school system. They are special needs students who have been fully inteâ€" grated into the classroom and need the special consideration. "If accommodation is something that is done all along, then it would be logical," she said. "If they require it daily, they will require it on the Ontario assessment." Grade 3 test results fail to highlight high rates of exemption, parents group says DIANE MATYAS An evening with Starts at 6:30 pm Cost $30, including a copy of Diane‘s book Mon. Jan. 26, Galt Country Club, Tues. Jan. 27, Westmount Golf & Country Club Wed. Jan. 28, Cutten Club, Guelph PERFORMANCE Bob Vrbanac Chrumcle Staff MECHANICAL LTD./Gism»r CRONINâ€"EMERY "We have to say this is where we are and how do we get better,‘ she said. "That‘s all I want to do." St. Bernadette in Kitchener was the highest ranked school with an overall average of 3.46, on a scale of one to four. Elgin Street school in Cambridge was the lowest with an average of 1.73. But Wagner, who has a child with reading and wnting problems in her own house, said accommodations made now wont help these children in the future. School boards have a responsibility to inlorm the parents of these special measures they are taking for their children "They deny that all these other things are in place, these accommodations, these no data students," she said. "They dont tell us about it because they don‘t want us to know about 1t." Wagner‘s organization has put out their own ranking of the 129 schools in Waterloo Region, including the percentage of students not tested. The highest ranked school In Waterloo was Empire at number six overall, and the lowest ranked school in Waterloo was Winâ€" ston Churchill at 116. Wagner said the information is needed so parents, teachers, principals and school councils can do something in time for the next round of testing in April. "The kids are going to be tested again," she said. "As parents and as school councils we need all the information the boards have so that they can help the kids at their individual schools do betier." He said schools have used the results to come up with action plans. The dialogue that Wagner thinks is so important, has begun. But Cecil Omend, the associate director of the Waterloo Region District school board, said that ranking individual schools is not useful "The test does two things," he said. "It proves what we‘re doing well, and gives us information on where we can improve." "The focus of the (school) councils is to say if they aren‘t doing well, what are they doing about that," he said. "It‘s also about takâ€" ing a look at where they (schools) are doing well." 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